Thread: The Olympus OM-D E-M5 Experience

Well, the Olympus OM-D E-M5 has been out for a little while now and has already received the full bells-and-whistles review from DPReview, so there's not too much point giving any technical background on the camera or listing all the headline features. My general take on the E-M5 is that this camera really is a wonderful example of the merging of electronics and technical wizardly with the traditional camera. I think that we're really starting to enjoy the fruits of the development that has occurred since Canon first put a CPU in the AE-1 and even more so since the digital sensor began to replace film.

In the last two years the way that I use cameras has changed dramatically; going from a viewfinder-based SLR style to live-view, tilting screens, waist-level shooting, chest-level shooting, ANY-level shooting. The E-M5 is a fine example of a camera that allows me to continue down that path. Ergonomics are an issue when a camera like the E-M5 is made to be so small (and it is small, don't let the DSLR look fool you), but this is another area that I have comes to terms with. Whereas I once would have said that an Olympus Pen was a bit awkward and the grip on a Panasonic G/GH too narrow, I've simply adapted, even if it means holding a camera in a completely different manner to what I was once familiar with.



You can still operate an E-M5 like any other camera, but the above grip is how I learned to love the Panasonic GH1, how I enjoy using the Canon G1X, and will also be my default grip for the E-M5 as well. The common feature between all thee three cameras I just mentioned is a tilt or articulated screen, a finger grip of sorts, and a front control wheel that can be operated with the forefinger.

My first usage of the E-M5 was at night after I had travelled into the city to pick it up. With some charge in the battery I immediately gave it a test run and knew that I had the first camera that I ever really enjoyed shooting at night with. Yes, the higher ISO performance is a big improvement on any Olympus before it, but ironically that was not the most impressive feature. It was the speed and accuracy of the AF in low light combined with the superb new "Five-Axis IBIS" system that really got my attention. Ray showed some examples using the IBIS in his "Month in New York" thread, and I'll add a couple more here

1/8 second





1/3 second





1/3 second





All three were taken handheld with a 25mm lens (50mm equiv on Micro 4/3). I feel that 1/3 second was acceptable limit to get genuinely sharp images assuming you were steadied. BTW, these were all taken at waist or chest level which is no less stable a way to hold a camera than the traditional eye-to-viewfinder IF done correctly.

Some more examples from my first night out shooting the E-M5. I am referring to the camera as the E-M5 but so far OM-D seems to be the more popular title. This may change once the E-M5 isn't the only model available under the OM-D badge. For those not fully aware of how the Olympus model structure works, all of their current non-DSLR interchangeable lens cameras follow the Micro Four Thirds standard and share the same lenses and accessories. OM-D is simply the name of the line of cameras (presumably there will be more to come) that sits above the existing Digital Pen range in features and price.

If I am referring to my own E-M5, his name is Darth Vader .

As above, these images were all shot with the Leica 25mm f1.4 Summilux.

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B&W:

I hate you Nic. :)

I want one!!!!

Originally Posted by Armanius

I hate you Nic. :)

I want one!!!!

Stop holding out for Silver

Go black! Go Darth Vader!

I am not!!! I want to join the dark side! But I can't find it either!

I missed a few of these on flickr. These are really great, Nic. Enjoy your new camera.

Some of the cooler technical features I like about the E-M5:

- Five Axis IBIS, already described above. The effects can now be previewed on both the screen and EVF, just as you can with lens-based IS systems. It's amazing how much you can jiggle the camera and yet still have a steady view

- Tiltable OLED touchscreen. This screen seems to be me to be better in bright conditions to any LCD that I have used before, and while I still prefer the fully articulated screen, the tilt-only screen is a very useful feature for shooting away from eye-level. The touchscreen is inherited from the E-P3 and is capacitive like a smartphone so it is very sensitive to the touch. In normal shooting it operates in three modes which can be switched by touching a button icon on the screen: off, focus only, and focus/shutter release. If using the touch shutter you do need to exercise some caution because with most m4/3 lenses the autofocus is extremely fast and the continuous shutter function is also operated by the screen. Touching the screen accidentally or holding your finger on it for more than a fraction of a second can start the camera firing away at 9fps! Incidentally I don't leave the camera in the high-speed continuous shutter mode because the slightest hesitation on the shutter button will give you an extra frame or two. The touchscreen is also linked to the "Super Control Panel" but it only lets you select a function which can then be changed using a control wheel.

- Gradation. This is Olympus' version of dynamic range expansion for jpegs. This has been available in previous Pen models but I always turned it off because I don't think that it was implemented well and didn't suit the characteristics of the sensor. On the E-M5 with the new 16MP sensor I think that it works very well. RAW support for the E-M5 is now available in lightroom 4.1 and from the DNG Converter, but I feel that the gradation setting is doing a lot of what I would've done to a RAW file anyway. The E-M5 also features a visual tone curve adjustment tool (as opposed to plain contrast) that I have set to a slight reverse curve. In combination with gradation this further prevents the loss of detail in jpeg files.

F*** they are good images!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very nice Nic.

Nic - I'd seen the "movement" images but not the others - great stuff! And thanks for the tips. I'm already with you on the IBIS and the touch-screen, but I'd just instinctively turned off the gradation feature based on past experience (well, I've always shot raw with my Oly's but I've shot jpegs when I had a camera that didn't have raw support yet). As good as jpegs are getting, I may give this a try - Haven't played with the tone curves yet - always figured that was something I'd leave for PP, but maybe there's a reason not to...

-Ray